Walk With Me
by Catherine E. Grant
Summary: Ares offends Zeus, yet again, Dite gets dragged along for the ride. But now the other Olympians don't feel like pulling any punches. Where can they go? Where does Ares ever turn when he needs help? Xena.


WALK WITH ME

Author: Catherine E. Grant ([avatar_31@angelfire.com][1])

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine, they belong to Ren Pic.

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A/N: I really hate the turn the series has taken so I don't think I'll bother writing anything that features Eve etc unless I feel majorly inspired, which I doubt is gonna happen.

"Xena! Oh, Xe-na! Where are you love?"

"Coming Mum." Sighing, Xena swung her legs around and got up from the bench where she was perched lightly. Oh well, she thought. It was nearly noon in Amphipolous and she really shouldn't have been that lazy anyway. It was the weather, she defended herself, we haven't had such a nice sunny day for a while. Yes, the weather. That was it. Satisfied, Xena ran her hands quickly through her hair to freshen up. It wouldn't look good to appear to have been sleeping, though that was exactly what she had been doing. 

Her eyes refocused quickly to the dimmer light as she entered the inn. Xena spotted Cyrene immediately, clearing a table near the front of the room, and she wondered what could have been important enough to bring Cyrene to call her inside. As a rule she never interrupted the Warrior Princess. 'Maybe she saw I was sleeping,' Xena thought guiltily. 'And I _did _promise to help her on the repairs to the inn.' Maybe that was it, she'd been found out. Boy was Gabrielle going to have a field day when she heard. 'Best get this over with, then.'

"Hey Mum, what is it?" Cyrene turned and beamed at her, narrowly avoiding dropping the dirty plates as she shifted her grasp. Xena rolled her eyes. "Here, let me take these," she murmured, relieving the older woman of her burden. Xena, her mother noted sardonically, had no trouble managing the delicate load. "So, out the back?"  
"Oh, thanks Xe-" 

"-na. Xena, Mum. My name is Xena, NOT Xe. How many times do I have to say that in this bloody place anyway?" she added as an afterthought. Quickly she deposited the dishes in the kitchen, where the girl at the sink gave her a tremulous smile. Xena ignored her.

Returning to the main room, she prompted "So what was it anyway?"  
"Well," Cyrene began, and gave up explaining when she saw the Look beginning to form in her daughter's steely blue eyes. "You have a visitor" she said simply, voice lowered.

"Who?"  
  
"I don't know, she just came in, bedraggled and well filthy, looking like something the hydra dragged in. She's wearing the most ridiculous see-through immoral outfit, what's left of it anyway. Some women!" She sniffed. "I'm glad you never turned out like that Xena, even though I've never been totally happy with the path you chose…"  
"And the woman?"  
"Well outfit aside, she looks terrible. I'd say she's been through Tartarus and back, she looks about to drop, and keeps looking over her shoulder like she's watching for someone. She's scared, Xena, absolutely petrified of something, but she just clammed up like a nutshell when I tried to draw her out, huddled into herself and asked to speak to you. Said you'd know what to do." Cyrene shrugged hopelessly. "She's over there, look for yourself."  
  
Xena looked, already half-expecting what she knew she would see. Aphrodite's condition, however, shocked even the warrior princess. The former Goddess of love was obviously mortal and in a great deal of distress; furthermore she looked like she'd been beaten within an inch of her life. She lay limply, unconscious the warrior guessed, across the heavy wooden table, golden curls matted and clotted with blood that still seeped from a nasty head wound. Her trademark skimpy gown was all but torn off her in shreds and her bruised flesh was already beginning to show some interesting colours. In short, she was a mess, and she was unconscious in Xena's mother's inn. Xena wasn't sure, but she figured some other god had to figure in there somewhere. There was only one way to find out.

"Ares!" She screamed, hand on her chakram. "Do you have anything to do with this?" With her free hand she indicated Aphrodite's still form. "Show yourself you bastard." The expected flash of light came, but it wasn't Ares. Athena stood before her in all her celestial glory, obviously very pleased with herself about something. 

  
"Sorry, Xena" she smirked. "Ares can't hear you at the moment. He's kind of busy, so do you mind if I take a message? I'm filling in for the war god at the moment and I'm thinking of making it a permanent position."  


"What have you done to them?" Xena growled.

"What, me? _I've_ done nothing. They did it to themselves, they both did. Your leather clad hero was acting the arsehole again and letting his armies run amok, and they destroyed one of Hera's main temples and she's furious! The stupid blonde bimbo made the mistake of sticking up for him, so she got to share his punishment." Seeing the stricken expression that Xena tried to hide, she continued smugly "but 'cos she's Dad's favourite Mum went easy on her. I s'pect Ares is dead by now, so don't get your hopes up, Xe-na! They've been looking for an excuse to do him over for millennia; the bastard's just gotten what he deserves. And she did too, you have to be dumb to stick up for War, she probably only did it 'cos he's a good screw." Her sculptured face twisted slightly in disgust. "I really can't see what they gain from such pursuits."  
  
"You'll never know" purred Xena, drawing her sword. In one fluent movement she lunged and feinted, drawing the Goddess of Wisdom away from the body of her friend. The other saw through the movement and parried the underarm slice that would have caught her by surprise had she met the first. They exchanged a rapid succession of blows before Athena, tiring of the sport, tossed a small ball of energy at her opponent. It caught her in the chest and she was thrown clear across the room. With a sick thud she impacted against the opposite wall. 

"Bye bye Xenie" the goddess taunted and vanished in a showy column of sparks. Cyrene could almost understand why Xena objected to any shortening of her name.

"Ouch that hurt" winced Xena as she got up.

"I'll get some cream" offered her mother quickly.

"Worry about me later, 'Dite needs help more, she's in a bad way. Get some ointment and the antiseptic, it's in that small bottle on the end of the shelf."  
"I know where it is, Xena, it's my medicine cupboard after all" her mother protested gently as she fetched the items. Ignoring her Xena carefully sponged away the worst of the blood with a soft cloth and a bowl of water. Though the damage wasn't quite as bad as it had first looked, the bruising was extensive and the head wound was still open. Between them the two women quickly treated the ex-goddess' injuries and bound her wounds. When they were finished she made quite an incongruous figure, more like a child with her torn dress, uncombed hair and assorted bandages, than a senior member of Olympus.

'And she only stood up for Ares,' Xena thought as she studied her clinically. 'What trouble have you gotten yourself into now, you bastard? Don't you know not to offend Hera, she'd kill you cheerfully if she could find someone to replace you.' As the implication struck home her blood ran cold. It seemed, indeed, that Hera HAD found someone to replace him. So what, then, had happened to Ares?  
  
"You bastard" she muttered. "You bloody bastard Ares! Why'd you have to drag her into your petty squabbles with Hera? You let her suffer because she cares for you, you prick! You'd better hope Hera finishes you off before I catch up with you, because when I do I'm gonna carve out your blackened heart with a dull knife and skin you alive. Your hide will make a lovely blanket for Argo."  
  
"You just want me between your legs, Xena, admit it."  
The sound of the familiar voice made Xena turn; Ares' cocky attitude obviously hadn't been affected by the beating he'd received. And Athena hadn't exaggerated; he _had_ been treated rougher than his sister. 'It's a miracle he's still standing' she thought, and raised her eyebrows when Ares responded

"You'd still be standing too, Xena, I couldn't see a little thing like a beating vanquishing you, you're too strong. You'd show them."   
"And you did?" She hadn't meant it to come out as icy as it sounded, and immediately wished her pride would allow her to take it back. But, dammit, not around him! He knew her too well. And she couldn't help feeling truly sorry for him in a way, surely the destruction of one temple couldn't warrant such a price? 

  
"It was a big temple." Again, he answered her unspoken thought. She sighed. "Well, if you're going to be mortal, and you're going to be annoying me –"  
"Could you imagine me doing anything else?" Ares interrupted with a twinge of laughter in his voice.

"- since you WILL be annoying me, I guess we'd better get you patched up so I can give you the thrashing you deserve."  
  
Dammit but the arsehole was sexy, even bruised, battered and covered in blood, he still turned her on, and he knew it. She wished to be able to thump him over the head and treat him unconscious, but she didn't feel she could do that, so instead took pleasure in his small intakes of breath as she applied the antiseptic lotion with a more liberal hand than was really required. 

Glancing around idly she noticed that her mother had left. 'She's probably gone to get Gabrielle,' she realised. 'Having two gods suddenly turned mortal and bleeding all over her inn is probably a bit more than she can stand at the moment, she needs someone she can gossip with about it, and I don't exactly fit the bill.' The picture of herself gossiping with Cyrene about the Olympians made her snort. 'Yes, Mum, and then I poked Zeus' eyes out, so that's why he doesn't really like me. And I wouldn't sleep with Hades, so he's a bit put out, and I like Aphrodite but Gabby's more her kind of person than I am.' Looking down at her patient she realised he was the only person she could truly say was her type, and she his, not that she wanted their relationship to go as far as it would if she allowed herself to admit that. 

'He's the God of WAR, Xe' she reminded herself forcibly. 'He can't feel, or understand feelings, while he's a god, and he's never mortal long enough for anything to work out. Whatever happens now, it'll all be different once he regains his godhood. And he'll go off and forget, and start screwing some priestess, and I'll be the one left with a broken heart.'

'Or am I already?'

"Damn you Ares" she whispered fiercely, and hugged him close for a moment. "Damn you for everything you've done to me, and damn you for everything you're going to do to me, and damn me for not being able to resist. I hate you but I love you, you bastard!" Pushing him away from her Xena stood abruptly and brushed away the hot tears that sprang so readily to her eyes. She readied herself for an argument that didn't come as she looked at him, and realised that he must have fallen unconscious. 'He can't have heard me,' she thought, 'it's alright I don't have to come to terms with anything yet.' 

Even in unconsciousness Ares wore his perpetual smirk. He hadn't heard Xena's confession, but he knew his princess well enough to notice her genuine concern, and he hadn't missed the fact she let his insult slide. 

Perhaps this mortality gig wouldn't be quite so bad after all. 

   [1]: mailto:avatar_31@angelfire.com



End file.
